Woman accused of stealing $128,000 from shelter will go to trial

CHAMBERSBURG - A Marion woman accused of using more than $128,000 from an animal shelter's funds for personal use had her case transferred to trial court after a preliminary hearing Friday.

Tracy Samantha Frey, 57, who uses the name Samantha Frey publicly, had some charges amended and the rest confirmed to go to Franklin County's Court of Common Pleas after a three hour hearing.

Frey, the founder of Greener Pastures No Kill Animal Shelter, is accused of using money from the shelter's bank accounts for a wide variety of personal uses, including lawyer fees, probation and jail costs, her mortgage and costs toward the addition to her house.

During the preliminary hearing, two members of the Pennsylvania State Department Charitable Organizations Bureau testified about the investigations and records retrieved in the case.

One investigator, Andrew McCole, explained the extensive subpoena he sent to Frey, requesting documents such as how much money the shelter was bringing in each year, documentation of board members, employees, and the transactions made with the bank accounts used by the shelter.

Once McCole received some of the initial statements from the banks, there were several red flags raised.

"We couldn't understand how this was being used for an animal rescue," McCold testified Friday. There were checks being used for back taxes, regular doctors offices, liquor store purchases and more, so they subpoenaed more records.

Frey's attorney, Tony Miley, questioned McCole on whether he did further investigation into each check and donor and the creation of the bank accounts used.

McCole told Miley that requesting the documentation for these things from Frey was part of his investigation. He added that Frey responded to most of the requests, but in many cases indicated some records weren't kept by her or simply weren't kept at all.

Toward the start of the investigation, McCole said he did receive notice from Frey that there were some unsolicited donations she received and that a sign for the shelter was removed from the property.

McCole added listing of cash receipts with names and dates of the transactions were not available, Frey told McCole, he testified.

McCole also monitored the shelter website and Frey's shelter and personal Facebook pages, to determine whether donations were being solicited. McCole said the website had a donation page through their first cease and desist letter, but was eventually taken down. The shelter Facebook page had a donation button for a long time.

Miley questioned whether McCole could be sure the Facebook pages were created by Frey and controlled by Frey fro the shelter. McCole said the shelter's address was listed on the Facebook page, but he could not definitively say Frey had created the pages.

To go over the complete breakdown of the funds used in the Greener Pastures No Kill Animal Shelter bank accounts, auditor Charles Young testified about the spreadsheets he created regarding the bank statements.

Miley questioned Young's characterization of the checks, such as why Young might list a check as a donation when there was nothing written in the memo line about it being a donation. Young said that if the check was written to Greener Pastures, he considered listing it as a donation.

Miley also questioned whether the accounts listed as "Greener Pastures" and the checks written to "Greener Pastures" could be properly identified as belonging to and being written for Frey and her shelter.

After going over the bank statements in detail, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jeremiah Zook determined there was enough evidence to bring the case to trial court. Frey's charges include one count of theft by unlawful taking and 27 counts of violations of the Charitable Organizations act, including refusing to submit documents to investigators and accepting donations after receiving a cease and desist letter.